


Nothing left to mourn

by TimonTomato



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-22 21:17:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23000569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TimonTomato/pseuds/TimonTomato
Summary: Peter lost his wager. Now the Archivist is coming to save Martin, and to confront Peter. The end of an era, and perhaps a last divorce too.A (very) short story.I'm still bad at titles.WARNING:Spoiler S4. Like HUGE SPOILERS OBVAnd character death, of course.
Relationships: Elias Bouchard/Peter Lukas
Kudos: 53





	Nothing left to mourn

He had lost. For the first time, Peter had lost a wager to Elias. And it was the one that actually mattered. Of course it was. 

Even the Lonely didn't seem to quiet Peter's frustration. He knew that soon, Elias' Archivist would be coming. He was ready. If he was as good as Elias thought him to be, then Peter wouldn't spare him. That wager he may have lost, but everything else he hadn't.  
If Elias' Archivist failed, then perhaps he would finally realise that there were more urgent matters than whatever games he fancied playing on his own.  
If The Archivist succeeded... Well. There was no point thinking about that.

Now he was here. And Peter had to welcome his guest.

How weird it was, to find yourself speaking to a stranger- To an enemy about yourself, without being able to stop. It went against everything that Peter was. Against everything that The Lonely was. They were, on many aspects, the same thing. Maybe that explained why he felt so weak as he spoke.  
There was no relief when the talking finally stopped.  
The Archivist had won. And now he knew everything he had to know about Peter and is role in that dreadful comedy. He would get his precious Martin back, and leave the Lonely, as Elias had planned.

Peter didn't feel anything. He was just tired. He had been played, he had been used, and finally he was being turned against himself, forced to expose his own weaknesses. How pathetic. 

Peter was done with his story. So he figured he would just go. Leave Elias' pet to find the way out on his own. Surely it wouldn't be too hard, since Peter had left the way open.  
And after that, he would leave that accursed place. He would go back to the Tundra, and this time, he would stay there. Meddling with other avatars had only caused him trouble, and it was definitely more energy than it was worth. 

And yet. The Archivist was not done. Of course not. He wanted to know. And so the questions came. About the wager. About the stakes. The rewards. Clever as he was; he knew there was something behind that.  
And he wanted to know what. He wanted to know about Elias' plan. And if he knew, then it was all over. 

When Peter felt the tingle of the compulsion- he knew his time was over.

He wondered if Elias had seen it coming. Had it been his plan all along?  
It felt like a bad joke. For everything to end in his own place of power, in the company of Elias' pet. Denied loneliness by the Eye one last time.  
One last divorce, Peter thought. He would have laughed were it not for the pain.  
And just as all their previous divorces; It left Peter with the bitter-sweet taste of something not quite like an heartbreak, but not quite like relief, either.

Of course, it hurt to resist. Of course he wanted to just let go.  
But he thought of Elias- Of his plan. And he just couldn't give up. Not now. Not after everything they had sacrificed. He had sacrificed.  
Elias wouldn't fail. And so Peter couldn't either.  
For the first time in his life, he didn't run away from confrontation. How ironic that it would be the cause of his death. It felt like a greek tragedy. Peter had never liked theatre. It made sense now.

As it got increasingly harder to focus, the pain becoming unbearable- There was a brief flash of respite- And during that moment, Peter found himself thinking about regret. For all his life, he had never liked to linger on that. But for the first and last time, he thought that; if he had one regret; It was that when Elias finally brought all the fears in their world- Peter wouldn't be at his side to witness it.

But that was alright. 

_

Jon came out marked by the Lonely. Sure enough, he didn't linger very long in the Institute. But it didn't matter. Now everything was in place.  
And he couldn't escape his fate. At last. After all this time. Immortality was close at hand. 

As everything clicked into place around him; and everything felt clear and right; Elias found himself staring at the spot where Peter had disappeared earlier. Just past his own rotting body. There was no trace left of him.

Stubborn fool. 

There were so many ways for it to end. Peter could have let Jon struggle by himself. He could have answered that last, gnawing question that Elias knew Jon would ask, being the good archivist that he was.  
But Peter didn't. Of course he didn't. Elias had expected that outcome. Though perhaps, he had underestimated the consequences. He hadn't expected Jon to go as far as to kill Peter.

It was probably for the best. Elias told himself that, as he passed his thumb over the golden band around his ring finger. It was familiar now, he kept it mostly out of habit. At his age; a lot of the things he kept, he did so out of habit.  
Peter had been a distraction. For the better and the worse, he had always kept Elias distracted in some way. Another divorce, another wedding. The unfamous honey moon phase that kept on resurfacing and crashing down, over and over. And they had kept on doing that, like junkies getting their fix. 

Now at last, it was all over. All that was left was his own plan, nothing else would get in the way. No one. No stray thoughts. No feelings. Just purpose.

He removed his ring, and considering it for a moment, tossed it on the floor next to himself. Next to where Peter had gone and disappeared. He didn't feel lighter for it. But he hoped, as he walked away, that it was just the air of the place that weighed on him. 

Too much was at stake.


End file.
